Travel & Leisure SMITTY Award

“Curators of Sweden” Wins Travel + Leisure SMITTY AwardWho Tweets for Sweden? Everybody Does!New York, NY June 8, 2012: The dynamic, unpredictable, and utterly original Curators of Sweden initiative from VisitSweden and the Swedish Institute received the SMITTY Award from Travel + Leisure magazine for the Best Use of a Social Media Platform by a Tourism Board (Global). The SMITTY (Social Media in Travel and Tourism) prize was presented on June 6, 2012.Curators of Sweden, which started December 10, 2011, places @sweden, the official Twitter address of the nation, in the hands of the people who represent it best: Swedes. “No one owns the brand of Sweden more than its people. With this initiative we let them show their Sweden to the world,” says Thomas Brühl, CEO of VisitSweden.Every week a different Swedish individual takes over Tweeting duties on behalf of the nation, answering questions from Twitter followers, sharing news, and adding dimension to the world’s perception of Sweden. Discussion topics have ranged from how Swedish firefighters stay in shape (Have you heard of floorball?) to the Swedish passion for fika (Our beloved coffee break.) to the embarrassment of discovering your mum is following you on Twitter (Ouch!). It’s up to the Curators to keep the conversation lively and entertaining 140 characters at a time. So far that has not been a problem!After five months, Curators of Sweden had sent more than 9,000 Tweets and received 31,400 mentions in more than 120 countries. Nearly six months into the program, the number of Tweets sent is approaching 20,000 and @sweden has nearly 29,000 Twitter followers.

This week’s Curator is Erik, an 18-year-old high school student from Trollhättan in West Sweden. Previous Curators have included Pär, a librarian at the National Library of Sweden; Anna, a firefighter; Annakarin, a teacher and mother of two; Hanna, a truck driver; Tomas, a welder; and Adam, an organic sheep farmer.

Next week’s Curator? Well, it could be just about anyone in Sweden. The Curators of Sweden program is ongoing and nominations for Curators continue to pour in.